The battle against Tik Tok takes another step forward, I would hazard a guess that UMG (Universal Music Group) are tracking all those ‘Ban Tik Tok in the west’ news stories.
So far ……
Why is UMG taking their music off TikTok?
FEB 27 2024 – ‘Universal’s music was licensed to TikTok until earlier this year – but they let the license lapse after failing to reach an agreement over how much the app should pay artists. As a result, the label’s recording catalogue, which is around three million songs, was removed at the start of February.’ (Source BBC)
Meanwhile ……
US House passes bill that could ban TikTok nationwide!
MAR 14 2024 – ‘The US House of Representatives has passed a landmark bill that could see TikTok banned in America. It would give the social media giant’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell its controlling stake or the app would be blocked in the US. While the bill passed overwhelmingly in a bipartisan vote, it still needs to clear the Senate and be signed by the president to become law. Lawmakers have long held concerns about China’s influence over TikTok. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, founded in 2012.’ (Source BBC)
The Problem ……
FEB 12 2024 – ‘Statista reported the percentage of internet users in the UK alone who use TikTok. As of 2021, 27.86% of 13-17 year olds and 40.32% of 18-24-year-olds are using the platform to create and consume video and this is growing’ (Source The Social Shepherd)
TikTok might be the single biggest promotional tool for artists in music today. (Source Forbes)
So ……
Is this just a simple story of a lack of control? UMG has said in the past that TikTok only makes up about 1% of the company’s total revenue. But there is the old saying “look after the pennies the punds will look after themselves.” I could assume the argument from the bean counters at UMG is if Tik Tok paid what the music is worth it could be 2%, 3% or 5%, wo would get the revenue, UMG or would this extra be passed onto the artists? or a percentage?
DEC 12 2023 – And now a vague plan with Spotify? ‘Spotify doesn’t pay artists royalties based on any kind of rights agreement between Spotify and the artist. Instead, the music royalties you’ll receive as an artist on the platform are based on your agreement with your music distributor or label.’ and ‘Spotify pays artists between $0.003 – $0.005 per stream on average. That works out as an approx revenue split of 70/30 – so that’s 70% to the artist/rights holders and 30% to Spotify. (Source Ditto Music).
The you can have ……..
JULY 6 2023 – ‘The day has finally arrived. Following months of speculation and analysis about TikTok’s plans to launch a standalone music streaming service, today (July 6), ‘TikTok Music‘, a streaming app and serious new Spotify rival, has officially arrived. According to Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music Business Development at TikTok, the app is “a new kind of service that combines the power of music discovery on TikTok with a best-in-class streaming service’ (source musicbusinessworldwide.com)
And then there is ‘Spotify vs. Apple Music is a debate we won’t soon hear the end of. However, as of late, Apple Music users are claiming their service sounds better than Spotify’s, that Apple’s songs are punchier and more crisp than the rival streaming service, especially when using high quality headphones or speakers. While Apple Music users might have a point, there’s a simple way those on Spotify can boost their sound quality right now.’ (Source Ditto Music)
Chinese whispers (pardon the pun) and people do believe that the Spotify sounds is substandard, thats what I hear so no source just a personal opinion. I know it can be improved (see above). I also found out recently that swapping streaming providers is easy, I thought it would be a mammoth task to start again.
So is the entire argument UMG jumping on the bandwagon of the US Governments concerns over China and security and protecting its 7% stake in Spotify against Tik Toks own music streaming service. Spotify has seen a 73% of monthly users fall within the 18 to 34 age bracket, remember the above statistic that 40.32% of 18-24-year-olds are using the platform.
So ‘maybe’ the UMG concern is the younger generation 18-24 is going to choose a service they know (not necessarily trust) to access there music, followed by the 13-13 year olds who will emulate them and so on. Tik Tok is already the fastest growing Social Media Channel around and with that it becomes the ‘go to’ social media for marketing to those demographics, not Facebook or Twitter or Threads, instagram and Snapchat still in the mix nut for how long. And remember it is from China, but then I suspect so is all the hi-fi and streaming equipment residing in the houses of the UMG executives.
